It was barely one month ago that the San Diego State women’s basketball team cruised into The Pit and handed New Mexico a 17-point loss on its home floor.

Aztecs head coach Beth Burns knew a second meeting had to end with a tighter result, even with SDSU on top of the league standings and in the midst of a 15-game home winning streak in Mountain West Conference play.

“There’s too much pride, character and class in New Mexico to lose the way they did and not know you weren’t going to get their best shot,” Burns said. “We knew they were going to be a different team.”

The Lobos proved that yesterday, taking a rare 65-58 victory over the Aztecs at Viejas Arena before a nationally televised audience and a season-high 2,069 in the stands.

Using its seventh lineup of the season and getting little offensive production from top scorer Amy Beggin, New Mexico (14-7, 6-3 MWC) still took its third consecutive victory, all over teams that, at tipoff, were at the top of the league standings.

First, it was BYU. Then, the Lobos knocked No. 20 TCU out of the national polls. And yesterday, it was SDSU (14-7, 6-3), which finds itself in a three-way tie with New Mexico and the Cougars for second place behind TCU.

“What changed in them? Their level of confidence,” Burns said. “Their toughness was excellent, the way they mixed things. Obviously, we were unable to get in a rhythm offensively … and New Mexico had a lot to do with that.”

While leading scorer Jené Morris again paced the Aztecs with 21 points, her foul trouble meant Burns had less flexibility to use her as the defensive anchor of the Aztecs, too.

“We were just trying to keep her in the game,” Burns said. “We couldn’t risk her fouling out.”

Beyond Morris, SDSU struggled to get offensive production to match the Lobos. The closest contributor was Quenese Davis, who scored 10. New Mexico, by comparison, had four players score in double figures.

And while the Lobos — who entered the game leading the nation in fewest turnovers — tallied an uncharacteristically high 23 miscues, SDSU had 25 and saw New Mexico go to the free throw line 24 times. The Aztecs went just six times.

USD 67, Santa Clara 58

Toreros senior Morgan Henderson topped 1,000 career points and then some, scoring a team-high 20 in USD’s victory over the Broncos at Leavey Center and stretching her all-time mark to 1,018.

Henderson, the 12th player in program history to reach the milestone, ended the game one rebound shy of a double-double, while guard Dominique Conners scored 17 in her 11th straight game with 10-plus points for USD (14-9, 6-3). Santa Clara fall to 3-21, 1-8.